Controversy brewing over the use of New York grocery store vegetables instead of the White House garden vegetables, as claimed in a recent two-hour special edition of “Iron Chef: America.” The horrors! Of course, Fox News is HOT on the trail of this breaking controversy.

White House, Iron Chef in Veggie Scandal

Anthony Bourdain submitted an opinion piece in The New York Times last Saturday. What I don’t understand is why all the content is about 2007. I guess the piece is part of a series reviewing the naughts. I think, however, he could have written a great piece about the entire decade and what has happened to food celebrity.

Not much in terms of holiday cooking this year. We didn’t host Thanksgiving, and we’re celebrating Christmas in Chicago, where there’s not much home cooking going on.

It’s been a long and stressful year, without much time for cooking. We hope to return to the kitchen in 2010, revitalized and energized for some new culinary adventures.

We continue to make our way through the fridge, freezer and pantry. We shop only for fresh fruits and vegetables. A review of current provisions shows limited options for a “Sunday night dinner”–salted bacalau (which requires an overnight soak), a whole chicken (frozen solid), some t-bones (also frozen). Clearly some planning ahead is in order for dinners this week.

We do have a cache of tiny fingerling potatoes. And I roasted some beets on Friday that we didn’t eat. We also have lemons from Mom’s garden. So for dinner tonight…one purchase: fish (cod, halibut…) to pan roast with lemons, capers and parsley (also from Mom’s garden). Roasted potatoes, and an avocado/beet salad with shallot vinaigrette (that I made a couple nights ago).

Aside from the major dinner (see menu below) on Saturday, we’ve remained pretty true to our no shopping until the freezer is empty rule. First, our Happy Birthday Julia (and Cindy) dinner, honoring Julia Child. The menu was inspired by her, but not entirely taken verbatim out of her famous book The Art of French Cooking.

Brandade on croutons

Potato Leek Soup

Mussel souffle with saffron cream

Roasted squab with duxelle and chicken liver spread

Boeuf Bourgignon

Roquefort cheese tart

Chocolate pots de creme

So now we have plenty of leftovers. Plus sous chef Maria brought fresh eggs, peaches, lemons, potatoes and tomatoes from her and family gardens. We are pretty well stocked. Last week we enjoyed tortellini and pesto, chicken and vegetarian enchiladas, pasta tossed with lemon and artichoke hearts.

Typically the week leading up to a Tavolavila dinner, I start scrutinizing the refrigerators and freezers. I need room for the prep and storage of ingredients for a seven-course dinner for eight people. That usually means cobbling together some dishes from ingredients already in the house, rather than running my almost-daily visit to the market down the street for that day’s dinner.

I read that eGullet also suggested such a challenge.

And, like most traditional media these days whose primary source of news stories comes from people doing the real work, the New York Times wrote a similar article.

So here goes this week’s experiment. Today is a little bit of a cheat…I bought a couple ingredients to fill the gaps. But starting tomorrow…for sure…I have placed an asterisk next to the ingredients I purchased in the last 24 hours.

Tonight’s menu:

• Spicy lentil dal
• Yogurt*-marinated chicken breasts on the grill
• Naan (not homemade, from Whole Foods)*

Spicy Lentil Dal

One small onion, diced

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger*

2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

2 tablespoons garam masala**

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 cup brown lentils

3 cups water

1 tablespoon vegetable (or, as I used, ghee)

In a small pot warm up the oil or ghee until hot. Add onions and saute until transluscent. Add garlic and ginger. Stir until very aromatic. Do not brown. Add tomatoes and mix in. Add the lentils and the water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a bare simmer and cover. Cook until the lentils are very tender and it has the consistency of a stew.

**NOTE: I like to buy the whole spice garam masala that I found at Whole Foods (and still had in the cabinet). I got it as an experiment, but it’s easy to replicate. It’s made up of whole black peppercorns, cloves, cardamom seeds, mustard seeds, tiny dried chilies, cumin seeds. I toast this on a dry skillet then use a coffee grinder (used exclusively for this purpose) to grind them.

Yogurt Marinated Chicken

1 cup 2% Greek-style plain yogurt

2 tablepoons “Punjab Red Tandoori” spice by Urban Accents

1 teaspoon salt

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Mix the first three ingredients. Cut chicken breasts into 2-inch cubes (for kebabs). Mix with marinade. Set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Great article by Michael Pollan in The New York Times called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch.” It is a discussion of the notion that while the Food Network and TV cooking shows are watched by millions, it may not be translating into more home cookery. That is a shame indeed. I continue to be both flummoxed and despairing at the constant drive toward “fast, easy and cheap” in today’s kitchen.

We have found time to devote hours to boxes with screens–computers, iPhones, iPods, televisions, etc.–but can’t seem to find the time to make a simple homemade soup?

I’ve said this before…COOKING is what separates us from the animals. It’s what makes us human. What are we losing when cooking amounts to opening a can here and tearing apart a box there?

My favorite quote in the article was this:

{Julia} Child was less interested in making it fast or easy than making it right, because cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal.

I completely understand and empathize with that attitude. The article goes on to say that cooking, for Julia, was not about pleasing or impressing anyone. It was about the actual joy of cooking. I find cooking to be almost meditative. It requires your attention, your focus and your patience. And while I can be completely exhausted after preparing a meal, it’s a sense of satisfaction I get from few other things in life.

Variety magazine reports that Top Chef host and model Padma Lakshmi is working out a deal to star in a sitcom. It will apparently be about “a woman working in the culinary world.” Sounds like a real stretch there. Doesn’t kind what kind of culinary world…the wording seems careful to avoid “restaurant.” I’m sure there’s a clause in the contract that forbids her to don a hair net.

This is shaping up to be an amazing event. Sign up now as some of the classes and seminars are selling out!

Last weekend in celebration of Independence Day (U.S.) and Bastille Day (France), we gathered with our neighbors and friends for an evening of food and wine. The evening, as in years past, was heavily weighted toward the French side of The Pond.

On the menu:

• Foie gras terrine with black truffles (hence the previous post’s rant about pink salt; which I finally did get, BTW, from Sausage Maker.). The recipe is from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon, and it was fantastic. It’s a four-day process, but well worth it.
• Tomato tart tatin–this one was much better than the one I’d previously made, even without the lavender balsamic reduction. Big change: clean out the seeds to create a drier tomato. Overall a big hit.
• Cassoulet a la Julia Child–pork and pork products with some lamb for variety. Beans were really creamy and delicious. It was a two-day undertaking. If I hadn’t been so busy during the week I could have gotten a serious head start. Alas, most of it was prepared on the day of the dinner in my new ENORMOUS Staub 8-quart cast iron pot. Weighs a TON.
• Dessert…the weakest link this time. Apples and dried apricots baked in a filo pastry. Not exciting.

The seven of us enjoyed massive quantities of amazing wines, thanks to our most generous guests.

It was a nice detour from the usual burgundy dinner to visit the southwest of France. But given the heavy influence of burgundy among our compatriots, we may return to that region next year.